UN vows sanctions over new NKorea missile test

UNITED NATIONS, United States: The UN Security Council has strongly condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test and vowed strong measures, including sanctions, to derail Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

North Korea’s long-term bid to develop a credible nuclear attack threat to the US mainland saw it launch on Sunday (Monday in Manila) what appeared to be its longest-range missile yet.

Pyongyang said the new weapon – called the Hwasong-12 – was capable of carrying a “heavy nuclear warhead.”

VERY OPTIMISTIC This picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Monday shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (second for right) reacting during a test launch of a ground-to-ground medium long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location. AFP PHOTO

In a unanimous statement backed by the North’s main ally China, the council on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) vowed to punish Pyongyang’s “highly destabilizing behavior” and demanded a halt to any further nuclear or missile tests.

“There’s a lot of sanctions left that we can start to do, whether it’s with oil, whether it’s with energy, whether it’s with their maritime ships, exports,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley told ABC television’s “This Week.”

“We can do a lot of different things that we haven’t done yet. So our options are there,” the official said.

The United States is in talks with China – Pyongyang’s main trading partner – on a possible new sanctions resolution and the Security Council is expected to hold a closed-door emergency meeting starting on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

‘A substantial advance’
Kim personally oversaw Sunday’s test, the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said, and pictures by state media showed him gazing at the missile in a hangar before the launch.

The missile was launched on an unusually high trajectory, before splashing down in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

Analysts said the test suggested an actual range of 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) or more if flown for maximum distance.

“This is the longest-range missile North Korea has ever tested,” Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in the US told Agence France-Presse.

On the respected 38 North website, aerospace engineering specialist John Schilling said it appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile that could “reliably strike the US base at Guam” in the Pacific, 3,400 kilometers away.

The North has made no secret of its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States – something President Donald Trump has vowed “won’t happen.”

KCNA cited Kim as saying the North would never succumb to what it called the “highly ridiculous” US strategy of “militarily browbeating only weak countries and nations which have no nukes.”

“If the US dares opt for a military provocation against the DPRK, we are ready to counter it,” it said.

‘Reckless provocation’
In April Pyongyang put dozens of missiles on show at a giant military parade through the capital, including one that appeared to be the type launched on Sunday.

There are doubts whether the North can miniaturize a nuclear weapon sufficiently to fit it onto a missile nose cone, and no proof it has mastered the re-entry technology needed to ensure it survives returning into Earth’s atmosphere.

Sunday’s test came less than a week after South Korea elected a new president, Moon Jae-In, who advocates reconciliation with Pyongyang and had expressed a willingness to visit the North to ease tensions.

But Moon slammed the latest launch as a “reckless provocation” and said dialogue would be possible “only if the North changes its attitude.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the test was dangerous, but warned against attempts to “intimidate” Pyongyang.